Meeting the Chief

Posted on 08 Sep 2016 @ 1:27am by Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Petty Officer 3rd Class Micah Hershey
Edited on on 09 Sep 2016 @ 1:45am

1,880 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 7 - Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -05; Begin Alpha Shift

[ON]

The wave of surrealism strikes hardest at the strangest times. For Micah Hershey it was at 0500, still five days out from Starbase 234. Sleep came slow in an alien place with fresh faces and hands still practically warm from opening handshakes. Excited energy too. Micah was used to sharing quarters. On the warp facility test yards, he'd been solo. But in his entire tenure at Proxima he'd had roommates. Last n he'd laid in bed, adjusting to a new mattress, new breathing patterns, new sounds. The engine at warp was at once a pleasant distraction but like rain he's wanted to stay up and listen awhile. It's thrum through him. Pulses of regular vibration as the fields pushed them one way and the dampeners another. Stasis and harmony was the livable in between.

In the end he'd slept fitfully, too much energy, too much stimulus. He turned over at one point and thought he was home with a strange whiff of something iron, and that loam of rain on the dry red Martian desert. But it'd been a dream, a memory feedback. At 2am he'd rolled over and half-expected the bronze skinned fingerpads of Kuai to be finding his sparsely done treasure trail about then. Stealing a moment. Or lips that tasted like the excellent walnut prawn from a hole in the wall Dimsum place. They were little reminders. But the real epiphany was in the shower.

He stared off into nothingness and it was the odd familiarity of the sonic shower that struck him. It was standard Federation design. They all looked alike. He was traveling away... the deckplates hummed resonance in it, away from Mars, away from Proxima. Away from the comfortable arms of a man and his monolidded stare in the blue of a stolen night. He'd broken it off... or started to... but Kuai had saw it coming and they mutually agreed it was over. And wished each other luck. Biyu was of course furious in her normal, fiery way. And closed the channel right after telling her brother she hoped his dick fell off. She'd take a week and there'd be apologies.

So he stared into the plain warm neutral of the shower until it beeped at him, a wordless klaxon of telling him he was fresh and funk-free. He stepped out and found underwear when one of his dormmates came in to use the showers. They brushed by, the rise of his butt against hers in a hairs breadth kiss. They said nothing, exchanged smiles and muttered mornings and Micah went to dress.

Sealing up his jumpsuit- he eschewed the two piece officer gear for something far more practical- he checked the time. As if to ground himself in a small compromise to routine he gave himself time for a quick ritual. When he slipped out of his quarters it was towards the shuttlebay. The dim, warm lights of the night shift hung ambient in the corridor and silent feet carried him to a turbolift. Turbolift took him to a hall. Hall took him to the flight control bay overlooking the shuttles.

A bored man leaned on the console and acknowledged him with a chin jut. No salutes, no need. They were Non-Coms. Leave that stuff to spit and polish officers, to the only ones it really seemed to matter to. Micah leaned almost dreamily on a sill to stare out at the shuttles. It was much smaller than the Wolff's, and a minuscule ghost town compared to Proxima Shipyards' bays.

His silent awareness of time rose and he scratched a dry patch of skin just right of his dataport. It was time to get the day started. His first Alpha Shift. He was used to the Beta Shift at the yards so this could be interesting. He made way with little trouble down to Deck Seven and was about to stride by the engineering central command console when the computer chirped. "Begin Alpha Shift..." her pleasant monotone voiced as the lights rose and cooled to a whiter hue. He approached the bulkhead arch to the Engineer's office and gently wrapped with a backhand of knuckles.

"Lieutenant? Sir?" He softly cleared his voice against the same knuckles and then turned on his shoulder to rotate into the door's full view.

Natalya looked up from the work on her desk. There was always work on her desk, so she was learning that any distraction had the potential to be a welcome one. Delegating was overrated, she remembered the stresses of fulfilling work orders and filing reports on her activities, but back then she never would have believed that reading reports could be more tiresome than composing them.

The chief engineer blinked once, twice. A new face! The Galileo was small and she was getting used to the fact that she recognized most, if not all of the faces she saw, even if she didn't know all of the names that went with them. She was expecting a new propulsion systems specialist, but she wasn't going to assume that this was him.

"Please, come in." She said, standing from her desk to meet him halfway. She wasn't the type of person who liked to sit while people presented themselves before her, but mostly she just wanted a moment to stretch out her legs.

A mosaic of PADDs and data seemed to decorate Lieutenant Kirilova's desk but Hershey's eyes skirted them only on travel to the body. He'd done only a cursory profile scan of his new Chief. Ultimately he wasn't the kiss-butt type but worked well with people of many shades. The picked things he'd seen suggested she was difficult to sum up. Some said by the book. Some said casual. And with that Micah had put it all away. It was a Martian eccentricity, especially among the cultures dominated by the old Eastern Coalition: gather as much data as possible on someone, weigh them accordingly and go forward. Business-like efficiency. The sometimes false impression of strength in familiarity. What Micah saw was a woman only barely shorter than he. Gray-eyed. Brown haired. Obviously taken up by the drudgery of management. Before him and behind her were precisely some of the reasons Micah never coveted an officer's position.

He met her halfway, easing in and brushing by as an Ensign slipped by him and soundlessly dropped yet another PADD onto her desk. The Ensign had flashed a grin- or maybe a grimace- and soundlessly left for them to have an introduction. All Engineers were different and their attention to decorum different. Micah wasn't about to leave a bad impression and so he assumed a professional air. Her being an officer that meant attention. "Petty Officer 3rd class Micah Hershey, sir, reporting in." He slipped his PADD from his cargo pocket and with a brief lip-chew he brought up his transfer orders, "My transfer orders, sir." He offered it out. His hazel eyes had soul, a relaxed kindness contradictory to his body. And they contacted her grays with alert attention.

"Oh, at ease." Natalya said with a casual gesture as the took the PADD in her other hand. There were times to stand at attention, but in Natalya's view most of them also involved dress uniforms. She understood that many in Starfleet had such discipline and rigidity ingrained, but she personally didn't see the need.

Looking down at the PADD, Natalya took a few moments to scan for the basics: training, time in service, previous assignments, and anything else that stood out. She didn't usually look at medical needs, family arrangements, personal history or disciplinary record, those were none of her business unless they needed to be addressed. If went without saying that she also checked his transfer orders to make sure that this was where Hershey was supposed to be. She didn't take long... less than a minute.

"All looks good." Natalya said as she entered her authorization and finalized his transfer. She handed the PADD back. "Welcome aboard Petty Officer Hershey." She said pleasantly, keeping her hand extended in greeting.

Micah stood to, his stance relaxed as his eyes dropped momentarily to the mass of work beyond the woman he now met. It was impossible to discern what any of it was. His ears cued in to the sounds of the PADD as she checked his credentials; in the backdrop was the ship again at warp, it's regular thrum at the heart of the pulsing warp core. He noted, with her telling him at ease, that she might be like many an engineer. Merits more than rank. But it was too soon to tell. And he'd been burned by a particularly abrupt designer on the Indii team. The man fussed over everything.

"Thank you sir," he answered back as first he took the PADD and then clasped her offered out hand. He nodded again his thanks. His PADD he pushed back into his cargo pocket and closed with a creasing down of his thumb. He found himself at somewhat uncertain of what to say next but he also didn't want to hover. The last thing anyone needed was a lost puppy hanging around their neck and Hershey wasn't keen to be that. "Is there a morning staff meeting, Sir? Or should I just review my next duty station in the system?"

"Your duty station is waiting for you, if you wish to get started right away." Natalya said with a small smile, knowing how eager some engineers could be to dive right in. "You may also take an hour or two to get settled in first... find your quarters if you haven't already, or grab a meal if you missed breakfast. It's also good to introduce yourself to medical and counseling and make appointments, before they decide to come looking for you." She seemed supportive of either option.

Hershey wasn't eager to waste any time on getting poked by an overeager nurse or undergo yet another psych evaluation. Nobody liked those things. Micah knew it was in his future, that sort of gnawing at reality that put stress on an already stressful day. He took a step back and placed a hand on the bulkhead. The Chief had plenty to do and seemed eager enough to get back to it so Micah decided he'd make himself scarce and go look up his duty assignment for the day. "Yessir," he nodded, fingers tapping absently on the bulkhead. "Well... I'll let you go back to your work," he said with another step back. Another nod and Hershey turned and slipped out of her office.

He found a console that looked unmanned and brought up the LCARS system and retrieved his schedule. Opening job was a level two diagnostic in the starboard warp nacelle, with a to-be replaced coil that had been acting up. So he set off there.

Natalya shook her head with mirth as the young man made his escape. Which had coincidentally happened after she'd mentioned medical and counseling.Turning back to her desk and the PADDs, she let the man get to work. She had more than enough to do as well.

[OFF]

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO3rd Micah Hershey
Propulsion Specialist
USS Galileo

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